Telstra’s first half result is a tale of dueling numbers.
The actual numbers show a 34% slide in earnings, a 15% fall in EBITDA and revenue off by 9% as the company felt the impact of the loss of NBN payments and some NBN commercial work.
Investors took note of these, marking down the stock 4.2% in Thursday trading.
Telstra’s core mobile business accounted for 43% of total revenue in the half, led by the postpaid segment which added a net 84,000 customers.
(Source: sammy/Alamy Stock Photo)
But Telstra CEO Andy Penn and CFO Vicky Brady point to the story told by the underlying performance and the company’s T22 efficiency program.
“Our T22 strategy is a clear success. We’re now a vastly different company,” Penn told analysts Thursday.
Underlying EBITDA increased 5.1% to A$3.5 billion (US$2.5 billion) and underlying EPS was up 55%, he said.
The…
